Craigslist lowballers

[AlexZander]

I listed a cocktail 60-in-1 on CL - the cabinet's a little worn, but the monitor works perfectly and the joysticks are great and all that... I offered it for $500. A reasonable price for what it is.

I've gotten 9 responses so far. 5 of them offered less money (as low as $250).

weak. but typical for CL.

It is called bartering. A human time-honored tradition of trying to make a deal.

 

[Robran68]

That was my point dude, without knowing more about the type of 60-1 in question (I believe I said without pics to confirm or deny), there are 60-1's to be had all day at $250. Just bought a 48-1 in a Street fighter II with a real nice monitor for $200 last week.

Of course everyone has the right to ignore what they consider a low-ball offer. But don't act offended, it is Craigslist for crying out loud......

Not offended, just venting from past experience with CL asswipes. The thing that sucks about the low priced 60in1's out there is people that aren't familiar with these games will start thinking all of them are created equal and should be all the same price.

 

[gsealock]

Not offended, just venting from past experience with CL asswipes. The thing that sucks about the low priced 60in1's out there is people that aren't familiar with these games will start thinking all of them are created equal and should be all the same price.

100% agree

 

[smisch]

cl

I can confirm that parts alone, I'm at 400 for a williams multi. Thats for Flat screen,board,harness,buttons,joysticks,cpo,power supply. Not including marquee,bezel and side art or time to put it together.

later

 

[ArcadeGreg]

Send them one of these pictures in your reply.

 

[jow]

I can confirm that parts alone, I'm at 400 for a williams multi. Thats for Flat screen,board,harness,buttons,joysticks,cpo,power supply. Not including marquee,bezel and side art or time to put it together.

later

You put an LCD in a MW? Ugh.

 

[jltlarry]

It's not very logical to get pissed off at a low-baller. They want to get whatever you have at as cheap a price as possible - that's not villainous, that's human.

At least they are interested in your product. You should use this knowledge to your advantage and start haggling with them, rather than dismissing them altogether.

BINGO I agree. But, I feel the same game received at too cheap a price, will be seen in coming months for more than the original asking price.

 

[tec9]

I agree with some others posts...if I want something, and the price is fair- I will pay it. You can try nickel and diming a seller, but you run the risk of losing a deal over a few bucks.
-Mark

 

[kcfreeloader]

I guess it's no worse then the highball sellers. The people that really think DK is worth $1500 to $1800. I talked with one of those guys for a while and made him an honest offer of $400, but no dice. $600 was the minimum for his very average condition DK. I just told him no thanks and went on.

 

[Zud]

Yesterday I posted 90+ matchbox cars on CL for $25. A guy responded within a few hours. By 9pm he picked them up. He said normally he would haggle, but when the price is reasonable there is no reason. He drove over an hour to get these.

 

[smisch]

LCD in MW

Yeah,

I don't have an LCD in any game and figured it would be cool to have a 22in for playing those Williams games. Hope I didn't make a mistake, will find out...

 

[blkdog7]

If it's something you really want, don't debate the price. Don't make an offer in an e-mail. Go see it and then negotiate in person, not before hand and in an e-mail. And, be willing to walk.

 

[SegaAges]

I haggle and low-ball everything.

It is something that sellers should be aware of. Think of it like getting a job, but you are coming from a hiring manager's perspective. You want that employee at the lowest possible cost, so with jobs, unless the pay is really good when it is low-balled, you always negotiate up as the future employee.

The better the worker, the better the starting low-ball wage is.

I think that people should understand that as a buyer, I go to CL to avoid eBay prices. If something is worth $1500 on eBay, I am not going to give you $1500.

The low-ball is the start of negotiating.

For example, there is a Street Fighter 2:CE cab I am looking at in CL right now. From the pictures, it appears to be in decent shape. The dude is asking $550. No, that is not a bad price, but unless it is filled with awesome or some game that is very amazing or you can tell extra work has been done to it, then I personally refuse to pay over $450 for a cab (maybe that is why I only have 2, but whatever). I offered the dude $400. For a working SF2:CE, that seems very reasonable.

I say instead of just ignoring low-ballers, I say start negotiations. I mean, you guys know how much this stuff is worth more than me, but we all need to accept lower than we want if it is on CL. I see CL as a massive garage sale. You never know what will be on there.

I am just saying that if you put something on CL, based on my experience with it, never expect to get what you want. If you do, then you might as well throw it on eBay instead with local pickup being the only shipping option.

I mean, you guys know how much this stuff is worth more than me, so if you get low-balled too much knowing something is worth more than anybody is offering, than maybe CL is not the best place to sell it

 

[OU Flight]

Just like Sega said, CL is just an Internet garage sale. Garage sale shoppers will haggle on everything. You can price something for quarter and the will try to get it for a dime. Same deal on CL. Just start your listing a little high so you can come down to what you want for it, and the the buyer will feel like they got a deal. The market is going to determine what your game is worth also. Just because you put so much into it and think it is worth so much, it is really going to come down to your target audience. Which in this case is the bargain hunters.

 

[Les Manley]

I haggle and low-ball everything.

It is something that sellers should be aware of. Think of it like getting a job, but you are coming from a hiring manager's perspective. You want that employee at the lowest possible cost, so with jobs, unless the pay is really good when it is low-balled, you always negotiate up as the future employee.

The better the worker, the better the starting low-ball wage is.

I think that people should understand that as a buyer, I go to CL to avoid eBay prices. If something is worth $1500 on eBay, I am not going to give you $1500.

The low-ball is the start of negotiating.

For example, there is a Street Fighter 2:CE cab I am looking at in CL right now. From the pictures, it appears to be in decent shape. The dude is asking $550. No, that is not a bad price, but unless it is filled with awesome or some game that is very amazing or you can tell extra work has been done to it, then I personally refuse to pay over $450 for a cab (maybe that is why I only have 2, but whatever). I offered the dude $400. For a working SF2:CE, that seems very reasonable.

I say instead of just ignoring low-ballers, I say start negotiations. I mean, you guys know how much this stuff is worth more than me, but we all need to accept lower than we want if it is on CL. I see CL as a massive garage sale. You never know what will be on there.

I am just saying that if you put something on CL, based on my experience with it, never expect to get what you want. If you do, then you might as well throw it on eBay instead with local pickup being the only shipping option.

I mean, you guys know how much this stuff is worth more than me, so if you get low-balled too much knowing something is worth more than anybody is offering, than maybe CL is not the best place to sell it

I wouldn't consider a $400 offer on an advertised $550 SF2 cab lowballing. That is a great opening to negotiations. To me, a low ball offer would be <$100. That wouldn't get a response back from me.

 

[jehuie]

There are very few cases where I would spend more than, say, $150 on any arcade game. I'm not in a hurry to get any specific ones so when deals pop up I grab them. And if it's not a great deal then I will try to negotiate a great deal. But I don't lowball in terms of offering someone $100 for a game they are asking $700 for or anything like that.

But if they don't list a price I'm not opposed to going way down in the basement on the offer. And then telling them they can probably get more but if they just need it out quick to let me know. Works sometimes.

 

[gozer5454]

If it's something you really want, don't debate the price. Don't make an offer in an e-mail. Go see it and then negotiate in person, not before hand and in an e-mail. And, be willing to walk.

Do you have any monitors for sale? Oh really? $15 bucks? Hmmmm. Well, I dunno. Uhmmmmm.... could I get it for free?

 

[Robotron Jon]

I just looked at the ad and it was an invitation for low balling. You were too depreciating in your description of the item for sale, at least in my opinion, which leads people to believe you will take less than your asking.

Also, if you don't want lowball offers you could have stated the price was firm.

Just curious, did you get any lowball offers from people you know from here? Don't need to name names obviously....

 

[sosage]

On the day of pickup, I withdrew the cash, got the truck and a dolly, and was getting ready to get the game in about two hours. I got a text message from the seller that someone had come along in the mean time and offered $500 (the same $50 that we had negotiated down), and he said he had to take his money. I could have fussed and complained to the guy about it, but I just sent back a message that said "ok." As bad as it sucks, it's his game, and he can sell it to whoever he wants.

This is, unfortunately, par for the Craigslist Horror Story course and is absolutely NOT ok on the seller's part in any way. Something that is considered a normal part of business, such as haggling and negotiating and settling on a fair price, shouldn't be suddenly the bad or dumb thing to do because the seller has decided to go the douchebag route.

 

[thestonedgamer]

I have three Capcom Big Blue cabinets, all craigslist items.

Cab number 1 - Street Fighter III: New Generation (since changed to Street Fighter Alpha III for an extra $90) - they wanted $700, I paid $350.
Cab number 2 - Marvel vs Capcom II - they wanted $600, I paid $260.
Cab number 3 - Super Street Fighter II Turbo - they wanted a grand, ended up with it for $460.

...as you can see I paid less than half of what the craigslist sellers wanted. If saving money makes me a 'lowballer' then so be it. Like someone else said, you guys crying foul over people trying to get deals at what is known as the world's largest garage sale should either not post on craigslist, or start posting these ads:

"AND THAT PRICE IS TEH_FIRM, YOU LOWBALLERS TRYIN' TO GET A DEAL ON THE WORLD'S LARGEST GARAGE SALE NEED NOT APPLY, OK?!?!?"

Because that's what every craigslist ad bitching about lowballers looks like. Apparently lowballers cause their victims to lock the caps key.

Also, for my fellow 'craigslist lowballers' blkdog7 is right. Wait til you are there with cash in hand with your offer. Unless I'm buying something off a KLOV member or someone else I trust, no way am I agreeing to a price before I've seen something first. 'Fully working' on craigslist sometimes isn't. Call me a 'tire kicker' or whatever, but when I get to a spot there is usually "oh I'm sure that's, like a $3 fix". OK, then fix it and I'll give you that extra three bucks. Oh wait, your time/effort is worth more than that? What, MINE isn't? Oh, you don't know what it really is? Then my offer suddenly doesn't sound that 'lowball', does it?